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Old Time Radio Researchers GroupAdventures of Sam Spade, The

THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE

The Adventures of Sam Spade was first heard on ABC July 12, 1946, as a Friday-night summer series. The show clicked at once, and went into a regular fall lineup on CBS September 29, 1946. From then until 1949, Sam Spade was a Sunday-night thriller for Wildroot Cream Oil, starring Howard Duff in the title role. With Duff's departure, NBC took the series, leaving it on Sunday for Wildroot and starring Stephen Dunne as Spade. This version lasted until 1951, the last year running as a Friday sustainer.

Spade's appearance on the air marked an almost literal transition from Dashiell Hammett's 1930 crime classic, The Maltese Falcon, where he first appeared. Spade was a San Francisco detective, one of the most distinctive of the hardboiled school. His jump to radio was wrought by William Spier, who had already carved out a reputation as a master of mystery in his direction of another highly rated CBS thriller, Suspense.

Spier was editor, producer, director. A lifelong radio man, he had broken in during the primitive days of 1929 and earned his stripes serving on such pioneering shows as The March of Time. Spier assembled the writing team of Bob Tallman and Ann Lorraine and began putting Spade together. He was impressed by the deep, cynical, tough qualities in Howard Duff's voice. Duff had long experience as an actor, a career that traced back to his high school days in Seattle. He had originally wanted to be a cartoonist, but the sound of applause in a senior-year play at Roosevelt High changed all that. Suddenly stagestruck, Duff began hitting the boards. He worked in local theatre groups and cracked radio as an announcer on a local station. When the war came, Duff went with Armed Forces Radio as a correspondent, a job he held for more than four years. He emerged in Hollywood in 1945, a seasoned but unsung microphone veteran. With his perfect voice and polished delivery, it wasn't long before Duff was playing supporting parts in top dramas of the air.

Sam Spade shot him to national fame. The character, as Spier saw it, would have many easily identifiable traits. The first thing Spade usually wanted to know was, "How much money you got on you?" Two hundred? Okay, I'll take that and you can pay me the rest later." But Spade wasn't a spendthrift -- he never threw silver-dollar tips a la Johnny Dollar, even if he could have put it on his expense account. Spade's favorite way to travel was by streetcar; it took him almost anywhere for a dime. He disliked cabs and liked cheap booze. You didn't need more than an occasional, subtle reminder: those glasses clinking every week as Sam opened his desk drawer and began dictation were enough. We knew Sam and Effie weren't toasting each other with Sal Hepatica. Sam was a man who worked out of his desk, and the thing closest at hand in that top drawer just might be a half-empty bottle of Old Granddad.

His clients got bumped off with startling regularity. Then Sam sent his report (and presumably his bill) to the widows. He dictated his cases to his faithful secretary, Effie Perrine, a babbling, man-hungry female who might have been the adult Corliss Archer. Each case came out as a report, dated, signed, and delivered. Spade license number - 137596 - was always included in the report. The cases unfolded in chronological order, the scenes shifting between Sam and Effie and the dramatization of Sam's dictation. Effie, who always seemed on the verge of tears whenever Sam became involved (as he did weekly) with a curvy client, was beautifully played by Lurene Tuttle, and Jerry Hausner played Sam's lawyer, Sid Weiss. Lud Gluskin directed the music and Dick Joy announced. Soon after the series began, Ann Lorraine dropped her writing duties, and Gil Doud became Bob Tallman's writing partner.

The show ran in its original format through the episode of September 17, 1950. Then Howard Duff quit for a fling at movies, and The Adventures of Sam Spade languished for two months. On November 17, 1950, it returned on NBC. Duff's absence was handled in usual network form: by importing a new voice. NBC ran the show as though nothing had happened, using Steve Dunne as a boyish-sounding Spade. Spier and Miss Tuttle followed the series over, and for a time so did Wildroot. Wildroot and the listeners all got wise around the same time. Dunne was a good radio man, but he sounded like Sam in knee pants.

Duff once said that Hammett had done such a great job in The Maltese Falcon that any actor could have played Sam and become a radio hero. He saw that theory proved wrong. In spades.


Information for this description came from John Dunning's "Tune In Yesterday The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio", and Roger Hohenbrink.

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OTRR Certification Information:

Series Name: Adventures of Sam Spade, The
Certification Status: OTRR Certified Accurate
Certification Date: April 1, 2005
Certification Version: Version 2
Number of CDs: 2


From the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group. See "Note" Section below for more information on the OTRR.

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

Notes

OLD TIME RADIO RESEARCHER'S GROUP

This is a production of the Old Time Radio Researchers Group located at Old Time Radio Researchers Website and the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.

It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.

If you are interested in preserving old time radio, you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Yahoo.


Relax, listen, and enjoy!

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OTRR Definitions:

OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that is Certified Accurate indicates that all the episodes are properly identified and labeled but that the series does not contain all known extant episodes.

OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that is Certified Complete is the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implies that all the files in the series are Certified Accurate but also indicates that the series is as complete as possible – it includes all extant episodes.

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Reviewer: manumoka - - May 16, 2009
Subject: The best of the genre
Since I wasn't alive during these vintage years of radio, I have no preconceptions, no nostalgic associations. After sampling many, I've concluded that Sam Spade is the best.

The writing and humor are brilliant (the show not only doesn't take itself seriously, it pokes fun at itself), and Howard Duff is certainly one of the great voices and personalities of radio. Even though some of the female voices are cartoonish, that enhances the (early) Mad Magazine-like tone of the series.

Reviewer: Troy H. F. - - July 28, 2008
Subject: Great Audio Quality, Wonderful Series!
Sam Spade, that original hard-boiled detective, and hilarious womanizer, is a hallmark of the great american radio drama, undoubtedly taking a 1st place prize for the best radio show ever.

Reviewer: justaskmike - - November 11, 2007
Subject: Sam Spade dogged by HUAC
Your review of the Adventures of Sam Spade did not mention why the program left the air briefly at the top of its' fame. Howard Duff's connection with the program and its' creator Dashiell Hammett was tainted with the brush of Commie Hunting House of UnAmerican Activities, headed by Congressman Parmel Thomas. Hammett was a friend of Lillian Helman (The Little Foxes) whose politics were considered leftist. The network shelved the program until they found Stephen Dunn, a younger version of Sam Spade, who did not have any unsavory political past. Duff of course continued to enjoy success in films.

Reviewer: FJ Klein - - November 9, 2007
Subject: COLOR RADIO?!
Yes - that's what this series is like - especially the BBC 2 hour STEREO segment - the Maltese Falcon. Chilling, Entertaining, and pure camp!

Reviewer: akohler - - June 17, 2007
Subject: Excellent
Great old time detective thrillers - fun and campy.

Reviewer: rand_m - - June 2, 2007
Subject: Great fun!
A very witty radio series thanks to the comic interplay between Duff's Spade and Lurene Tuttle's Effie. The mysteries are for the most part entertaining, light-hearted fun.